Darnell Butler

Name: Darnell "The Bull" Butler

Gender: Male

Age: 19 (went to school a year late)

Grade: 12

School: Southridge

Hobbies and Interests: Football, for one. He's the fullback on the team, or one of them. He is also a star on the wrestling team, and trains intensely for both teams, hoping to get a scholarship to a good college from both. He can often be seen accompanying team captain Evelyn on her morning runs, though they both often joke about how he has slightly less stamina than she does. He then goes home to do several hours of strenuous weight training and other exercises, and occasionally trains at a local boxing gym (though he's had a couple of amateur fights, he has no intention on boxing professionally, his future is for the NFL and maybe Olympic wrestling, in his eyes). A rather odd hobby of his are films and shows from the seventies and eighties, having been born in 1989. He also likes classical music and sings occasionally (for a recent school talent show he sung "Vesti la giubba" from the opera Pagliacci). He's sometimes made fun of for this, but he shrugs it off, and would usually be one of the ones laughing loudest at jokes made about it.

Appearance: Standing at six foot even and weighing in at about one hundred eighty two pounds, Darnell Butler is not a very big guy. However, just about every ounce of those one hundred eighty two pounds is pure muscle, and he is very strong; strong enough, in fact, that in a football game he once picked up a 6'11, 300 pound opposing player and threw him to the ground, though this took a degree of effort and he mainly used the other player's momentum to his advantage. He has defined arm, gut, and leg muscles that almost look as if they threaten to rip right through his very dark, almost literally black (he's one of the few African-Americans who could boast that they actually ARE "black", if one were to be overly literal) skin, stretched taught over said muscle. His hair, usually in a buzzcut, is also black, and he has dark brown eyes. His facial features are overall "handsome", he has pearly white teeth and clear skin, along with high, pronounced cheekbones. His nose is slightly smashed in, as it was once broken in a fight, and he has a diagonal scar on his cheek from a fight in Freshman year when someone pulled a swiss army knife on him (side note; that student was expelled and is now in prison for attempted murder), but he doesn't mind. The girls don't either.

He tends to wear light, black clothing, usually t-shirts and shorts that go down to the knee, and he wears black Nike sneakers all the time (his favourite pair). On his right bicep is a tattoo of a cross, above which is written "In God I trust". While this all-black appearance might make him seem gloomy, he's actually a very laid back, friendly person.

Biography: "So, you want to know about my life? Eh, okay. Ya might want to sit down, kid, long story. Been around for nineteen years, after all. Anyway, I was born right here in Highland Beach, California, to two loving parents named Hajim and Mikaela Butler. Dad is a foreman at a local construction firm, and mom works at a computer company, customer service. You know, one of those people that's on the other end when you call because your computer messed up somehow. Between the two of them, we're a pretty well off family, a good family to be born into. Have to admit, I was pretty spoiled growing up, they cared a lot about me, still do. For obvious reasons, I can't remember much about back when I was a little baby, so I'll move on a bit if you don't mind.

Earliest I can remember very well was when I was about eight. By then, I had been into football for quite a while, so I guess my dad got me into it earlier. He used to play running back for the Southridge Rebels back when he was in school, I guess he noticed my interest and tried to get me into it. Both of my parents would often practice with me, as they know alot about the sport, and they told me anything I wanted to know about the game. Positions, strategies, famous games, why almost every position had the word "back" at the end of the name, anything and everything. Actually, I still don't know why almost every position ends with the word "back" but I don't really care. Dad didn't let me use his weights back then, 'cause at my age he was worried I would hurt myself and I probably would've, but he showed me some workouts to build strength and stuff like that, and I worked on those. I entered school a year later than most kids do, and the years went by with me training both body and mind; working hard physically and studying at school and at home. My parents believe it's important to be a very well rounded individual, so that nothing life does can catch you by surprise.

The years went by uneventfully, to be honest. I studied at school, practiced, studied some more, did some research into good sports schools, and occasionally watched some TV or some such with the family, but nothing special. By eleven, I knew I wanted to be in the NFL and get a scholarship to a good sports college, though I had also started taking boxing lessons at a local gym. Can't quite remember why I decided to do that, but I stuck with it, and it got me in pretty good shape, toughened me up a lot. I was already starting to get a strong build by thirteen, and was almost as strong as I am now when I was fifteen. I think it was a hormonal thing, but in my first three years of highschool I got in a lot of fights, and I mean a lot of fights. Seemed like there was at least one every day, especially in my Freshman year where it seemed like everyone took it on themselves to "break me in" or whatever. One of them even pulled a knife on me for whatever reason, but all he was able to do was give me a minor cut on the cheek that looked worse than it actually was; that guy's in jail now. After that cut healed, I tried out for the wrestling team and the JV football team, as that fight was particularly early in the year. With the wrestling team, I had actually been approached while the cut was healing by one of the wrestlers, who convinced me to use the pent up aggression I had at the time on the mat, I thought it was a good idea. Coach of the JV team thought I'd be better suited for Varsity after seeing my tryout, he claimed that he nearly pissed himself watching me, but I wanted to try JV first, until I had more experience. It was interesting being on both teams. I'd have to literally train in both constantly, even though their seasons were in different parts of the year, just to maintain my weight class and skill level in both. Constantly doing weights, building up strength, running, sparring, practicing drills, maintaining a diet, the occasional sauna visit, and studying hard in order to keep up with my school work on top of all that. Most of the time, I was completely exhausted after a day was done, and even then I'd occasionally get enough homework to keep me up most of the night. A lot of my Freshman year fights were probably caused by that fact, I was often exhausted and in a rotten mood because of it, so when some punk kid started causing trouble with me I'd be so irritated that I'd simply flatten him instead of talking things out. Never really had time for socializing outside of my teams at the time, most of the time I didn't give enough of a damn, and I didn't get along with the other JV football players or the wrestlers all too well. Regardless, both of my teams won their respective championships that year, and my efforts academically also paid off as I passed with pretty good grades. I spent the summer at several football camps to increase my skill level, and allowed myself to gain weight in order to move up a weight class. Whatever free time I had was spent studying some more so that I wouldn't get rusty, and I had an amateur fight that I won by knockout in the middle of August. Needless to say, the summer was almost as tiring as the school year was.

Sophomore year was a bit more mellow. I still got in the occasional scrap, sometimes I started it and sometimes the other guy did, but I was left alone more than I was in Freshman year. Usually fights in Sophomore year, as over the last year and the summer training camps I had calmed down and matured, were started by them throwing the first punch. They'd get all in my face, and I'd warn them to back off; if they didn't, sometimes I had to floor them. Literally at the beginning of the year, I was given a notification of my transfer to the Varsity football team, turns out that the JV coach had gone behind my back and had the Varsity coach accept me onto the team. I didn't have any idea about it until I got that notification telling me to report to the Varsity coach when the season started, didn't even need to try out or anything; technically I already had the year before. I met the team while reporting to the coach during the first practice. For the most part, they seemed like the typical football types, and they were pleasant enough when I was introduced to them, but I was very surprised when I found out the team captain was a girl. I'm not sexist or anything, and I know that boys and girls being on the same football teams is getting more common, but I just wasn't expecting it. Especially keeping in mind how small Evelyn is, smaller back then too. Nevertheless, and despite my natural protectiveness towards Evelyn due to the whole 'she's a girl' thing which I often had to restrain, we got along alright and did pretty well in both games and practices. Right now I can't remember how well we did that year, but whatever. It was otherwise more of the same from Freshman year, but fewer fights; the ones I did get into were usually because I stood up for some kid one or two of the team decided to pick on. Socially we got pretty close despite the occasional scrap, and I would easily call any one of them my friend. It also turned out that Evelyn and I have very similar goals in life; namely getting a good scholarship and getting into the NFL, it's more important for her because then she'd be the first female NFL player in history. Sometime right before the end of the year she had agreed to show me a training regime she came up with, though since I had an early morning workout geared towards both football and wrestling myself I simply decided to accompany her on her runs sometimes and then work on my own regime. It's stayed that way since.

Junior year was even more of the same, with even fewer fights and the fact that I started being friendlier towards everyone, but early on everybody was talking about something called 'Survival of the Fittest' and I'm not talkin' about Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection here. Apparently some terrorists kidnapped a bunch of kids from their end of school trip last year and forced them into a contest similar to the Japanese 'Battle Royale' programs. I think it's bullshit, nobody would have the guts to do something like that to the USA, and nobody has enough lack of a conscience to do it and sleep at night either! I'm sorry, I shouldn't raise my voice like that. Moving on, someone had a DVD of the thing and offered to let me borrow it for a while though he warned me that the cameras suddenly gave out for good near the end of the ninth day of the game, but I refused. That shit's just sick, even if I'm sure it's fake. Football team started cutting down on their bullying, since by then I had pretty well made clear that I wouldn't put up with that kind of thing, though it still happened occasionally and there was the odd fight. Still, in terms of sports and the like everything went well. Of course, that was until Tyrese got shot in the face. Sent a shockwave through Highland Beach, and was one of the only things that took that SOTF bullshit out of Southridge's mind. Naturally, my parents and I pitched in money for his facial reconstruction surgery, and even that bully Montezzo said he'd help out. I don't know how exactly, but he implied help in more than a financial way, none of my business though. Otherwise, Junior year was very par for the course, but balancing all my training and studying was far less tiring by then than it was in Freshman year.

Over that summer, though, I got another letter, this time from a very high up person in the school board. I thought something bad was gonna happen, but apparently I was wrong, practically had a fucking heart attack when I read it. All the hours, all my effort and sacrifice, everything had paid off; I had gotten my scholarship! I would have to keep myself at my level, which meant continuing my constant training and study, but it was a small price to pay. My body was so used to it that it was like breathing anyway. Man, I can tell you right now I've been as high as a damn kite since I got that letter. This year I haven't really had much of a problem with anybody, all I've been concerned with is keeping my grades up and graduating peacefully so that I wouldn't risk gettin' in any trouble that would risk that scholarship. I've been goin' after it for most of my life, I'm not gonna let some stupid fight or something ruin it when it's so close. That's pretty much it though, sorry for bein' so long winded. Peace out, man."

Advantages: As mentioned before, he is extremely strong. He is also almost as quick as Evelyn, and skilled in hand to hand combat due to being on the wrestling team as well as his occasional boxing training. He has a high pain tolerance, and has a team full of friends to help him in the game, if they can be trusted. His laid back attitude makes it easy to make friends, as he's very approachable, while his literally almost black skin and his tendency to wear black allows him to blend into dark environments easily. Everyone in Southridge knows he is trustworthy, as well. He is surprisingly intelligent and will be very determined to survive and get back home. It's common knowledge that picking a fight with him is one of the stupidest things a Southridge student could do, so he may even face the scenario of people being reluctant to attack him or even actively avoiding him.

Disadvantages: His right knee was badly injured in the Shooters tournament and it was only fairly recently that he has made a full recovery. Because of this he isn't as fast as he used to be, and that knee is a weak spot in fights. He is also rather conscious about it, often going to lengths to avoid stressing the knee. He may trust his fellow team-mates too much for his own good, since each one of them is a good friend of his, and wouldn't even think of harming Evelyn or any other female on the island. On that note, he will literally go berserk if he sees someone hurt a woman, maybe enough to try to kill them; a potentially deadly weakness. He has no experience with guns and does not have medical training. In school, Darnell always opposed the football team's occasional bullying of the weaker students, to the extent that he even fought some of them sometimes. That could be a source of friction between the team, especially if most of them decide to play, which will provide a strong moral crisis for him. He trusts just about every Southridge student and doesn't think any of them, not even the football team, are capable of slaughter on SOTF's scale, so the first time he meets a "player" of the game will be a big shock for him. It should be noted that he did not think SOTF was real until this game, so he will naturally be very surprised about that.

Designated Number: Male Student no. 01

'The above biography is as written by The Burned Handler. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

==

Designated Weapon: Hedgeclippers

Conclusions: Well now, B01 seems like he could be quite the contender here. He's got some pretty shady past history, so I at least expect the guy to put up a fight, maybe even slaughter a few people if he sees them hurting the fairer sex. My guess? He'll be taken out by one of the lovely ladies he'll probably wind up defending.

Game Evaluations
Kills: Simon Wood, Daniel Brent, Eduardo Trinidad-Villa, possibly members of Squad One.

Killed by: Incinerated in explosion triggered by Bill Ritch

Collected Weapons: Hedgeclippers (issued weapon), Claymore (from Eduardo Trinidad-Villa), Micro-Uzi (from John Cox)

Allies: Kallie Majors, Ken Lawson, Matthew Wittany, Guy Rapide, Daniel "Boxer" Carvalho

Enemies: Eduardo Trinidad-Villa, Squad One

Mid-Game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes: ''I had to make sure that Kallie got out...I had to make sure that she was safe. I didn't expect that I was going to get stuck here...Keith, you'd better look after her...'' - Final thoughts before the last stand at the Armoury.

Other/Trivia

 * Darnell reveals in "Start - G07" that he has conflicting emotions regarding his friend Kallie Majors and can't seem to decide whether he's attracted to her or simply likes her as a friend; he decides - or at least admits to - the former in "Freedom or Bust", before his death fighting the terrorists.
 * Darnell also reveals in "Start - G07" that even though he and Guy Rapide share mutual friends and hang out with the same clique that he has somewhat of a distaste for the other student and only tolerates him because the rest of his friends seem to like him. This is contradicted in later posts, however, when he seems to genuinely value Guy's friendship and mourns the other student's death.
 * In "Best Served Cold", it is mentioned that Charlie Burchman is one of the only people Darnell hates.
 * According to a random trivia thread, Darnell was originally going to be a v2 character with a similar appearance but completely different personality. In v2, he was supposed to be a violently racist player who used SOTF as an excuse to kill his white classmates; Slayer never got to use him in v2, so he revised the character concept when entering v3.
 * Darnell was actually supposed to survive the escape, but when his handler was banned there wasn't much other option but to kill him off.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Darnell, in chronological order.

Pre-Game:
 * What's in the Past is History
 * Round One, Fight Four; Bobby vs. Darnell
 * Round Two, Fight Two; Lance vs. Darnell
 * Fight Night
 * TOURNAMENT FINAL: Paul vs. Darnell
 * St. Francis Hospital, Come Broken and Leave Fixed

V3:
 * Start - G07
 * Best Served Cold
 * Day by Day
 * High Voltage
 * #4: The smell of napalm in the morning
 * #6: Freedom or Bust

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Darnell Butler. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''